Gender Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin America and the Caribbean face a context of economic slowdown, with an increase in food insecurity, malnutrition and the risks associated with climate change. This situation strongly affects rural women and constitutes a significant obstacle to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.

That is why FAO is committed to promoting gender equality and protecting women's rights as fundamental human rights.

Consequently, FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2020-2030 mandates the Organization to focus its work on achieving equality between women and men in sustainable agriculture and rural development with a view to eliminating hunger and poverty.

This site reports on the work in favour of gender equality carried out by FAO in cooperation with Latin American and Caribbean States, providing information on initiatives, good practices, methodologies and tools that contribute to the achievement of gender equality.

Stories

Rural women in Haiti invest in themselves

Village savings and loan associations help Haitian women build their businesses and futures

Women move mountains

Supporting inspiring mountain women as they overcome discrimination, livelihood disruptions and climate challenges to carve out new futures

Mujeres Rurales, Mujeres con Derechos [Rural Women, Women With Rights] Campaign

The campaign convened by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), is a collaborative work initiative that joins efforts, articulates networks, disseminates knowledge and positive experiences to promote the full autonomy of women in the rural world.

Since 2016 this campaign articulates government entities, civil society organisations and United Nations agencies around regional and national advocacy actions in favour of the empowerment of rural women in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Actions

Year	Action
2016	Regional social media campaign
2017	Regional campaign on social networks and competitions at territorial level.
2018	Regional social media campaign and platform to energize sub-regional agendas.
2019	Days of social media activism and national activities.
2020-2021	Regional campaign on social networks and competitions at territorial level.

Photos

Join the conversation

@MujerRuralALC

Featured publications

The status of women in agrifood systems

01/2023

The Status of Women in Agrifood Systems report provides the latest data, lessons learned and recommendations for policy and decision makers about gender in agrifood systems. It reviews and analyzes women’s opportunities and constraints in economic and social processes, while taking stock and assessing progress made in closing a series of gender gaps.

Practical guide for the Incorporation of the Intersectionality approach in sustainable rural development programmes and projects

11/2022

In Latin America and the Caribbean, access to food and nutritional security, the poverty situation, and the capacity to respond to climate change are strongly related to gender, ethnic-racial origin, age group, and territory differences. A situation that demands observing the intertwined nature of these inequalities and proposing new ways to achieve sustainable development, leaving no one behind.

FAO Policy on Gender Equality 2020–2030

06/2021

Gender equality is essential to achieve FAO’s mandate of a world free from hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. The Organization recognizes that persisting inequalities between women and men are a major obstacle to agriculture and rural development and that eliminating these disparities is essential to building sustainable and inclusive food systems and resilient and peaceful societies.

Transformative initiatives

Dominican Republic

Dec 19, 2023, 19:33 PM

Title : Dominican Republic

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“Finanzas Rurales y Ambiente” [Rural Finance and Environment] Programme

In the Dominican Republic, poverty and vulnerability continue to be major challenges, affecting women in particular. In this context, initiatives are needed to enable women to move forward with their entrepreneurial projects in order to transform the reality of their families and communities.

This is the rationale behind the Rural Finance and Environment Programme implemented by Banco Adopem, a Dominican subsidiary of the BBVA Microfinance Foundation, in collaboration with the IDB's Multilateral Investment Fund, UN Environment, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA, by its acronym in Spanish), ADA Microfinance and the Central American and Caribbean Microfinance Network (REDCAMIF).

The programme is based on promoting the livelihoods of the economically marginalised population in rural areas, with a focus on microcredit. Women heads of households are an important part of the target group.

In this way, the challenge of designing, testing, validating and scaling up financial services that traditional financial institutions consider risky and that close the door to women's entrepreneurial dreams has been met.

Through this programme, financial services such as Eco-Crédito ADOPEM and Agro-Mujer ADOPEM, which have a strong environmental and gender focus, have been designed, validated and tested.

Eco-credit has provided efficient and rapid support to small producers who want to make productive investments to improve the environmental conditions of their farms or to adapt to climate change.

The Agro-Mujer product, on the other hand, was developed in response to the existence of a population of rural women, who generally do not have access to financing for their businesses.

The Rural Finance and Environment Programme has contributed to increasing the social and economic resilience of rural populations. It has promoted the reduction of risks associated with climatic events in productive activities and the protection, restoration or sustainable use of biodiversity and ecosystems, in addition to the short-term positive contribution to people's economies.

The programme has been extended throughout the Dominican Republic. With the support of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), ADA Microfinance, the Central American and Caribbean Microfinance Network (REDCAMIF) and UN Environment, more than 850 green loans have been granted, in addition to 8 800 agricultural loans.

The BBVA Microfinance Foundation identifies three key lessons from this programme:

As of 31 August, women accounted for 41 percent of the green portfolio. This is almost four times higher than the performance of the rural portfolio at the national level, which ranges between 8 and 10 percent. It is therefore possible to speak of a real financial inclusion of rural women.
Rural loans granted to women are mostly linked to value-added or commercial enterprises, which are more beneficial to women entrepreneurs.
Women tend to be more compliant with repayments than men, thus building a better credit history.
Access to financial services not only opens doors for women to improve their livelihoods, but also drives real transformation in their families and communities.